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Hangola September 11-12, 1999

Flying was great at the Pulpit yesterday with many great flights. Also, many bushes were hacked and weeds were wacked.

I topped out at 5000 msl and landed after an hour.

'Spark

So Ellis gave me permission to describe her flight...though I wasn't in the best position to do so seeing as I as about 1100 below her most of the time.

Ellis began the second wave of Launches about 3:30 into moderate conditions and immediately rose above launch, starting a pell mell scramble of other pilots who launched, see-sawed up and down for various lengths of time, and then landed. She was still up when the third wave (composed of flushed second-wave pilots (first wave having gone XC)) launched....and then they landed. And waited.

As she entered the second hour of her first ever soaring flight, we were all looking up at her thinking "Gee, this is great!".

As she entered the third hour of her first ever soaring flight, we were all looking up at her thinking "Gee, this is amazing!"

As she entered the FOURTH HOUR of her FIRST EVER soaring flight, we were all looking up at her thinking "Goddammit...."

The wind slackened, and she stayed up. The sun sank below the ridge (from ground level) and as it sunk below the ridge (from sky level) the little scamp finally relented to turn towards the LZ. The wind had gone catabatic in the the strip were we had landed. Landing into the wind would have meant landing downhill towards a line of trees, and partially broken down gliders are usually a tempting magnet. Ellis was not wearing a radio so all we could do was hold our breath.

She wisely chose a cross-wind up-hill landing in a strip no one had landed in yet - the fact that she could remember the geography of that freaky field so well after a four hour flight is a tribute both to her and to Marc Fink who walked her through the field.

After touching down Ellis (henceforth to be known as the "Queen of Spank") unhooked, walked two steps, and fell over on her back laughing. Both her legs had cramped.

-BVH

Sleds r US, well that is how it started since I was a bit late and toward back of the line on Saturday. Took 4 got 600' down everywhere I flew on #2 but #3 was a nice 20 minute challenge over a silo working the barnyard thermal. #4 was a nice peaceful wang and pretzel the airframe kinda flight, on the Gemini.

Dennis and Christian made cameo appearances, got high, then I got garbled transmission from Dennis saying he was down guess he meant down lower than he had been seeing them both come into the field after 1:30+/-? I flew instead of driving.Fred and Raean went 25 miles to Bridgeton, landing together. John Muldoon got to 6 grand I heard. Rich Green had a couple very good flights as well.

Sea leaves Sunday so to see the Veg head off Geoff had STEAK 6 of them and Wild Goose, sweet! Gladly partook with Sunny, Chad and Craig Williamson, (who also got drilled one ahead of me on one of my flights. Cept he went slack in his harness twice on tow, twas kinda rowdy). 2 shooting stars and one satellite.

Geoff did well per usual but I don't recall all the details.

Highland seems to be doing well with tandems and it was good seeing some of the WRHGC members there. It is a bit of a hike but a great trip I hope to see more of you coming down. I camp for the weekend and it makes it quite relaxing.

Sunday worried about high cirrus and H being close but I was happy to see the lighter winds which made it possible for me to have a much bigger sandbox.

Geoff was up 1st to stay for 1/2 hour working some clouds to the East of field then Tom McGowan joined him, learning my lesson, at 12:40 I was on the cart and just ahead of Fred and seemed like10 others. Geoff eventually got 2:30+.

Punched off after feeling something I liked but had to look around a bit for the core, the other 2 were South of me working something I couldn't get to, went through 3,000', cool, extendo sled, went through 4,000' let out a yell as that was my PR by 400', went through 5,000', thinkin I really should have dressed better, Tom and Geoff come and join my thermal as we soar with a sailplane, he was tough to work above but did it and enjoyed waving to each other from close quarters.

Actually managed to keep concentrating on different core while I guess Geoff and Tom were looking for places to go, got past 6,000' and hung out for awhile waiting for Fred and Raean, all of us in the same thermal for awhile with the sailplane.

Tom I think got highest this day but not here, unless he corrects me... I enjoyed floating around and making an inventory of landmarks. Viz was I thought good in spite of haze to NE from Wilmington/Dover Philly. Could clearly see a long way to the beach.

Tom went NE, Geoff NW, Fred and Raean WSW (to Denton) and the sailplane bailed too. Not having a good connection on the radio and lacking my bag I did not follow Fred and Rae but went to Ridgely. I was between 5,200' and 6,085' for 1:35 and startin to chatter. Went down to 3,800' to warm up.

Saw a lot of folks getting hoisted up and found myself flying again with Tom who zoomed in below me and also Craig on the XS (distinctive with the inboard winglets) and, after working up over the junkyard, Wayne Boulden. All of us worked around in a few different bubbles.

Seeing Wayne was pretty special since we have talked about flying together for the better part of 2 seasons, little did I know I would first see him at over 5,000'.

The Gemini has one heck of a sink rate and they could not get above me. Every dog has his day I guess. Craig said he then cranked on his vg till he stopped climbing just to stay warm and he went South of town followed by Tom, they hooked another,

Tom stayed in the thermal and after admiring this from afar I dove for it, and we circled together as Craig went to Denton, landing in a field whose owner did not know which road he lived on.... (Dueling Banjos insert here)

Tom went to cloudbase where I think he got 6,700'?, as he was leaving to go South (still not sure where he got to) I finally got to base, 6,054', as the little bugger dried up.

Back upwind flying with Wayne yelling our fool heads off over the town. I was freezing and went down to 3,000' again to warm up but was so cold couldn't see to de-hydrating myself so went in and landed. 2:05 boy did I ever need that. Next time I'll dress for it.

Flight #2 was sink to 600' then over the farmstead across from the lz hooked one to 1,100' by 10's, 20 minutes..... fun challenge but gave up as I was drifting a bit too far and did not want to land out, Steve Turner joined my thermal at 350' and worked it a bit to 600'? then landed after a few minutes, never really saw him otherwise unfortunately but he got 2 hours launching later.

It wasn't a sure thing, the later pilots had a handful of sleds. Mike Chevalier and Joe Gregor did well towards the end of the day working haze domes for a good long time, Janet flew as well as Bruce and Barb. I was just above Janet on Saturday when the tug weak link broke but she landed with the rope without incident.

John Williamson flew in with Bill Millpaas on the Dragonfly to visit. Bill Moyes dropped off a Sonic demo glider 2 weeks ago, by the way the one I flew boat towing.

Right place right time, On my Boo WAH list!
Altitude PR 6,085',
twice over 6,000'

Really comfortable fit on the Z-5, since cutting some pull strings and siliconing zips. All 6 of my landings were -8-9's so that was pleasing. Chad and Sunny were still flying when I left, AT paperwork goes in next visit when they have time, nice feeling of accomplishment to get that.

introduced Craig to Sam's for dinner.

Now gotta get more time in the Xtralite......

Best Air,

Robert towhead

Larry Ball, JR, John McAllister, Adam Arkfeld, John Myers, the Gardinator, Steve Krichten, Doug and I had some nice flying at High Point on Saturday. There was some big lift and some big sink. The highest I got was somewhere in the neighborhood of 5200 msl. I turned down going over the back twice since the the big sink was really big. John McA got about 6-7 miles (chicken ranch) on his topless. The Gardinator and Steve got to the Highway Dome field (just under 13 miles). Larry, who after sinking out went up for another try, got about 20 miles, benefiting from the more bouyant conditions. I spent 2.5 hours boating around the valley, at one point going forward to Haystack Mt hitting 4-500 up almost the whole way. 700-800 down coming back (downwind). A fun day only marred by losing the radiator in Doug's car when he hit a bookshelf in the fast lane on I-70 some bozo hadn't tied down properly. We were at the 14 mile marker west of Hagerstown. I called for help on the Hagerstown repeater and a good Samaritan HAM called the highway patrol office in Hagerstown which sent out a unit. The HP called the AAA service in Hancock and we were dropping off the car at the bodyshop in Charles Town (having passed by Harpers Ferry to drop off Doug so he could follow in my truck) by 11:30 pm.

Christy

I finally got my new pod harness in the mail last weekend, and I was anxious to get used to it before the fly-in; since I haven't done a foot-launch since June, I decided that it would be a good idea to hit the training hill before the big weekend. I followed Rich Hays and a beginner student out to (the training hill), which has a 30-foot hill overlooking the infield, which was perfect for practicing take-offs without burning myself out climbing back up the hill. As it turned out, doing a launch-run in the pod harness is no big deal; I did three of them in near-perfect form. As I returned to the top of the hill, I was looking forward to doing just one more so that I could leave and head on up to Stein Hill with another pilot to do some "real" flying. In my haste, I set the glider down and turned around to watch the streamers, and forgot to hook-in. After waiting for a little bit for a reasonable cycle, I began my take-off run and (for those you who missed it the first time) I still had FORGOTTEN TO HOOK-IN! It's a pretty eerie feeling when the glider lifts off your shoulders and doesn't want to take you with it. Fortunately, the hill was small and shallow enough that I simply continued to run with the glider until the ground leveled off and we both came to a stop, so there was no injury or damage. But it scared the hell out of me, because I always thought that I would never forget to hook-in.

R2

> Yesterday at the pulpit was notable for landmark flights by both Mark
> Cavanaugh and especially Ellis. I'll follow Sparky's lead and leave them
> to tell their own stories, though it's hard to contain myself.

Well, I dunno about "landmark", but I sure did have a nice flight! Topped out at 6100 msl, working thermals that seemed to be cooking off the JLG parking lot. Didn't go anywhere with the altitude, since I'm still in an ease-back-into-it frame of mind (oh yeah, my radio wasn't working, that might have had something to do with it too ;-).

So I flew out to the middle of the valley instead, enjoyed the sights, worked little stuff for quite a while. Then went back to the ridge and eventually played around south of the towers. There were a couple of near-flush cycles, then it started to go magic (though still a little cross) late in the day.

When I went out to land, I min-sinked the whole way, arriving at the field just a little below launch. Started lazily burning off some altitude... then I noticed a pilot *below* me, headed away from the ridge. Wasn't sure what to do, but since I was right there over the LZ, I chose to burn it in. Musta done five or six consecutive diving 360s, spiralling in like an auger; that was quite a little rush for the end of the flight!

Two, maybe two and a half, hours of airtime. Damn glad I put that sweatshirt on!

--mark c.

September 11, Pulpit.

I flew to High Rock, 3:11 6600 MSL max. Once I got high it was a fairly low stress flight. Tom and Tracy (who also did some site maintenance) were nice enough to bring my car to me at the High Rock LZ. I owe.

Dave

Sheez, if i had known Brian was going to be so nice about it, i wouldn't have given him permission!

some of my high lights:
- first 15 minutes were spent figuring out how best to do my landing approach to the LZ, when i got there.
- next 15 minutes: wow. this is great! i'm soaring! - followed birds, whenever the lift ran out.
- followed other gliders, but they were too fast for me (i hope i didn't get into anybody's way) - leg cramp as i'm buzzing launch
- watching sun (almost) set
- enjoyed view (especially at dusk)
- got way dehydrated, but the guys at launch didn't throw any water my way. maybe i should have asked for beer.
- getting above launch!
- getting above the ridge!
- having to decide to come down, instead of being forced to!
- learning to fly more slowly (those who know me, know that i tend to dive)
- remembering that old comedian who used to say "i just flew in from NY and boy are my arms tired!"
- watching the terrain, tree tops and birds for signs of better lift.
- wondering why everybody decided to land (was there a thunderstorm brewing?)
- being up long enough to feel the change from bumpy afternoon air to evening glass off.

landing (Brian was way too gracious):
circled over the friggin streamers twice and the streamer circled with me.
had no clue where "into the wind" would be when i was on final. did a best guess at what looked like the two most predominant directions, split the difference and then tried to find a decent strip; sort of lined up with that. the previously assigned strip seemed to be completely wrong. i guess i got lucky in my choice. just wish my flare would have been more aggressive. ended up rolling it in. :-(

also, next time i'll have to look at ppl in LZ. Mike C. was signaling the wind direction, but i didn't look for ppl (just for streamers), so didn't see him.

it was great fun staying up that long. learned a BUNCH and got an appreciation for a number of other things still to learn, like how do ppl get UP? i think the best i got up was about 400 or 500 feet above launch. there were times when the whole gaggle was way above me.

Mucho thanks to Mike Chevalier (who threw me off) and Marc Fink. both of them gave me great advice!

-- ellis (hoping she won't have to do another 7 hours worth of sleds before soaring again)

sometimes more isn't better, it just depends on how hungry you are. in terms of flying xc .. saturday i was starving. i had flown once (2 wks ago) in almost a year since i injured my knee. saturday, i had a great time. i've certainly gone much farther and flown longer , but in terms of enjoyment and just appreciating the experience, it was special. it was like getting some nookie after being in a monastery. .. well.....anyhow, I got to the pulpit too late to work or get a good set up spot. helped launch many people who seemed to get pretty high at times. it was when i saw 4 gliders over the valley in the back that i decided to go. I finally launched around 3:00. i started circling soon. it seemed about 10 min. till i was 2 grand over, climbing, and drifting back in a thermal. another glider maybe tom m., was nearby. he left our thermal to go back to the front ridge. i however turned to slowly drift down wind into the wide open valley. soon i hit the mighty sink holes, and speed up as needed. almost went to Mercersburg to get some lift but decided to just drift and hope to get lucky. i also remember seeing the encampment near FT. Loudon, pretty cool seeing 100 tents from 1/2 mile high. since it was not really a booming day in the valley, i just circled in light lift drifting. it really is a comfort knowing you have hundreds of lz's to land in. i landed in a nicely manicured cornfield a mile past Lemasters. . to top it all off, Art Barrick(old pilot) drove by and took me right back to launch. it was perfect. all in all, only a 45 min. flight and 7-8 miles, but as far as i was concerned , i couldn't have expected more. the beer tasted really good as i drove home for dinner(in time) listening to bluegrass music ......

see you soon in the sky--------- Rick Holtz

Rick

You're right, that was me near you on Saturday. I actually stayed near the ridge for a few more minutes (pimping off Marc Fink part of the time) and maxed out at 4,400' over. I hit light lift at the chicken coops and the quarry past Lemasters, but found nothing to get up in. I ended up flying cross wind the last couple thousand feet and landed near Upton. Dave Proctor made it to High Rock and I understand Larry Huffman landed just short of Emma Jane's field.

I had a nice day Sunday at Ridgley. I maxed out at 6,934' over. I lucked out and found a thermal that took me to base just as the cloud formed - and then disapated as I reached it. I then essentially dove for about 9 miles and 2 hours airtime.

How did everyone do in the mountains Sunday?

Tom

Since any landing with bent aluminum is a crash, this is an accident report on my 2d landing at the Pulpit on Saturday, September 11.

I flew twice on Saturday. The first flight was for 22 minutes, early afternoon. Weather was bright and clear, winds as forecast NW 5-10. On the first flight I landed into the light wind in the long strip to the west, bounded by tall corn on both sides. On that landing I had a clean approach, with a late flare, flaring to my knees instead of my feet.

On the second flight, which lasted 10 minutes on the ridge, I landed in the same direction on the same strip, same direction, in even lighter wind. Having had a poor timing on the flare on the first flight, I was concentrating on flare timing. I appeared to have it at just the right moment. However, as I began the flare, I felt the glider swing quickly to the right. I knew immediately that the right wingtip had hit corn, causing the turn. My body swung left, impacting the downtube and breaking it. DANG! The broken glider settled to the ground, not even hitting the corn I had been turned toward. I was fine, and there was no other damage to the glider.

This is officially an accident. I broke a piece of the glider. I thought about it and realized I had made a terrible beginner error... when landing in a bounded lane, I had failed to stay on the center line. That was stupid on my part. I knew better. I had performed properly on the earlier landing. But, I let my focus on one aspect of the landing, flare timing, distract me from other essentials.

Next week, I'm gonna do better!

Cragin S

6934!! That is truly amazing. I flew a sailplane* at Fairfield ( behind High Rock) and made it to an inversion layer at 4 or so over the quarry at Blue Ridge Summit. . Thought I was doing good.

ps. Brian H and I flew Fisher Rd. Monday. 1500 over was all but an enjoyable day. Nailed some chicken wire up over Annas barn windows to keep the pigeons out. We landed Annas. Saw some colts outside the stable in the main field so be sure to do the protocol thing if you want to land there.

*this conjours up the notion of sleek fiber glass. The Ka8 is wood and cloth and not a whole hell of a lot faster than a hang glider. 50s vintage with Germanic script warnings in the cockpit like "NICHT GEFLIEGENSIE ZUM BEFFELWURSER!!!! or sumpin. And you think: Damn! Wonder what that means.

Larry Huffman, Larry Ball, Jim Meadows, J.R., Homer, Mark G, myself

Pretty light winds, but also pretty sunny. Larry led off, eventually got high, and left (over the back). Don't know how far he got. Jim made a valiant effort but was not long rewarded for his attempt. Larry B was up for 1-2 hours (?) getting several thousand over. JR and Homer joked that at least their flights weren't long enough to keep them away from the Redskins game for too long (:5-:10). I was delighted to get up for a bit, 700' over, :30, on what was turning out to be a pretty marginal day. The Gardinator got almost an hour. Fred C showed later, having travelled to Jacks and Bills but was the only pilot to show in either place.

My flight on Saturday may have been the shortest of the day, probably coming to 7 minutes (don't really know, didn't have time to look at the clock!). The good part of the flight was that, using the drogue chute, I was able to land in the square field at the south end of the lz, landing into the north breeze, and was able to do it without anxiety!! (It was really fun!) On Sunday the drogue chute saved my butt when I got popped on final (on the spine) and ended up in a turn that sent me down the hill toward the fence in the gully. Unbelievably, I landed w/o incident before I got to the fence. (For those who believe in the nine lives theory, I used up one of my nine lives that day.)

Thanks to the Gardinator for the deluxe accomodations Saturday night. I came equipped with sleeping bag only to find out that there's now a bed in one of the spare bedrooms! Mark welcomes overnight guests anytime. Sunday we slept in (well, it's a short drive to Fisher Road) and spent time checking out a nice NE/SW facing ridge nearby. Mark has some recollection that other pilots checked out this ridge in the last couple years, maybe George P, Tom, or Steve Kinsley. Does this sound familiar to any of you?

Judy

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This page last updated September 14, 1999